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Meghan Markle just revealed that women will be disproportionately affected by the pandemic, and women of color will have it even worse.
Speaking in a pre-recorded video at Global Citizen’s VAX Live: The Concert earlier this month, the Duchess of Sussex shared some essential wisdom everyone should be aware of.
“With the surge in gender based violence, the increased responsibility of unpaid care work, and new obstacles that have reversed so much progress for women in the workplace, we’re at an inflection point for gender equity,” she announced. “Women, and especially women of color, have seen a generation of economic gain wiped out.”
Since the pandemic began, nearly 5.5 million women have lost work in the U.S., and 47 million more women around the world are expected to slip into extreme poverty," Markle continued.
:But if we work together to bring vaccines to every country and continent, insist that vaccines are equitably distributed and fairly priced, and ensure that governments around the world are donating their additional vaccines to countries in need, then we can begin to fully rebuild.
"Not only to restore us to where we were before, but to go further and rapidly advance the conditions, opportunities, and mobilities for women everywhere."
Markle and husband Prince Harry served as campaign chairs fo VAX Live, which served to support the effort to vaccinate people everywhere against COVID-19.
The concert took place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood California. While Markle opted to stay home and give her speech over video, as she is pregnant with her daughter, Prince Harry attended the event in person.
Harry spoke live in front of an audience of hundreds of vaccinated attendees.
In his speech, Prince Harry explained how many people in the world are unable to get the COVID-19 vaccine and encouraged supporters to help.
He said, "The vaccine must be distributed to everyone everywhere. We cannot rest or truly recover until there is fair distribution to every corner of the world. The mission in front of us is one we cannot afford to fail out and that's what tonight is about.
"None of us should be comfortable thinking that we could be fine when so many others are suffering. In reality, and especially with this pandemic, when any suffer, we all suffer. We must look beyond ourselves with empathy and compassion for those we know, and those we don't."
While discussing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccinations, Markle chose to focus her speech on spreading awareness of how the past year has affected gender equality.
She concluded, "Now tonight we've had a reminder of things we miss the most, be it live music or sporting events, or just physical contact with family and friends where we can sit together, laugh together, and hug one another. Whatever it is, it all circles back to the same thing: Connecting as a community.
"For most of us that means our local community. Our loved ones, our neighborhood. But let's also think about our global community. Across the world, we've struggled together. Now we deserve to heal together. We want to make sure that as we recover, we recover stronger. That as we rebuild, we rebuild together."
